1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer display screen monitoring systems in general and in particular to a computer display screen monitoring system for displaying text and graphic data appearing on one display screen in the system on one or more other display screens in the system in real time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multiple computers, work stations and the like, each having display screens, are able to communicate with each other by being connected in a system commonly called a local area network, such as ethernet or arcnet. Typically, the machines in such systems are connected in parallel to a system data bus and have the capability to display text and graphic data appearing on one of the display screens in the system on one or more of the other display screens in the system. However, a disadvantage of such local area networks is that they typically do not have the capability of displaying such text and graphic data on more than one display screen in the system in real time. That is to say, in order to transfer text and graphic data from one display screen to another display screen, prior known systems have had to convert the data displayed on the screen of the sending machine to a form suitable for transmission over the system data bus and reconvert it in the receiving machine for display on the receiving machine's screen. This practice not only has the disadvantage of not providing multiple screen displays in real time, but also is time consuming and costly in terms of the software and hardware required in both the sending and receiving machines. A further disadvantage is that such prior known screen monitoring systems do not usually provide for the transmission of audio signals between stations in the system.